FoolxFool
by Ink Scribble
Summary: Most girls, at some point in their life, have dreamt of getting swept off their feet by the perfect man. That's not how it goes for Sagi. Well, she does get swept off her feet, but it's really more like someone grabbed her by her collar and nearly strangled her in the process. And it sure wasn't done by the man of her dreams. Try a homicidal clown instead.
**Prologue:**

Sagi was six when she watched her mother board up the windows. She did not know why her mother was doing it, but she did know it probably was for the same reason her mom kept crying, why she continued to make high pitched keening sounds, as if she were a wounded animal. It had been that way for a whole day already, and just when Sagi thought her mother would stop, the noise would gain volume again, until it was a really scary scream. The little girl did not know what to do to make her mom better, but she kind of hoped that having the windows covered would help.

* * *

Sagi wished her mom would make dinner again, and would go and get some groceries. There was only so many sandwiches she could eat before they got kind of gross. She'd run out of bread anyway, (though half of it was sitting on plates in a dark room, going stale, next to a women who wouldn't eat) but that just meant she had to find something else. It was hard, Sagi had never had to cook before. The most she had ever done was heat up left overs… Or make sandwiches.

The little girl looked in the fridge and wrinkled her nose. There was a funny smell coming from the drawer in the bottom, and Sagi was pretty sure it was because of the carrots. She knew if she looked she would see squishy brown fingers instead of the proper vegetable.

The rest of the house wasn't much better.

The dishes were stacked high, some of them piled into a sink full of swampy cold water that had a layer of grease solidifying on the surface. It hadn't really occurred to Sagi to do them until she'd run out of clean ones, and when she had realized, a lot of the plates and bowls had been growing nasty green fuzz that she really really did not want to touch.

There was garbage all but exploding out of the bin, too heavy for her to lift out on her own, and fouling up the air with a weirdly sweet smell that also somehow managed to remind the child of all the dirty laundry she had hidden under her bed. Not that she had to hide it away anymore, it wasn't like anyone was going to ask.

Sagi leaned into the hallway, peering hopefully at the closed door to her mother's room. It remained closed, and no sound slipped past, except for the usual weeping that Sagi had grown accustomed to.

She glanced in the other direction, towards the door that lead outside. She hesitated, and then very, very slowly poked a toe towards the front door. Nothing. She breathed in, quietly, a quietly as a mouse, and then let the rest of her foot plant on the cold floor boards. This received no response either, so feeling a little bolder the small child began to tiptoe her way to the porch.

She made it all the way onto the worn down welcome mat, and was just about to slide her feet into her sandals, when their came a drawn out creak from the other end of the hall.

"Sagi?" A hoarse voiced asked, cracking slightly on the final syllable. "Where are you going?"

The youngster in question whipped around, and immediately hid her shoes behind her back. "Huh, ah, I wa-wasn't g-going anywhere."

Her mother peered back at her through the scant two inches she had allowed herself. Her eyes were creepy. They looked all red, and they kept darting around all over the place, and she wasn't blinking.

Sagi gulped.

"You can't go out. It's no good. Stay in here."

Sagi nodded, wordlessly drifting back to kitchen, and wondered what to eat for dinner while fighting back tears.

* * *

There was banging on the door, and her mom was screaming, grabbing at her with sharp nails that drew blood, telling her not to open the door. She didn't have to. Sagi was too terrified to even try and get away from her parent, confused, and crying huge, fat tears herself.

She didn't know what was going on. She was hungry. She wanted to eat. She wanted her mom back, she wanted to make the boards on the windows go away, she wanted it all to stop. Stopstopstop. Everything was really loud, and her mom was hurting her, and she kept feeling kind of dizzy. She knew snot was running out her nose, and down over her lip. Once her mom would have wiped it away, and gently told Sagi she needed to blow her nose more often, but she wasn't, she was shaking Sagi around and yelling at the people on the other side of the door, and they were yelling back, and It was loud. Loudloudloud.

Then suddenly the door burst open with a funny crunching sound, and several men stormed in followed by a red faced lady Sagi recognized as the nice auntie from next door. They kept shouting, even though her mom had fallen into quietly whimpering under her breath, and one of the men reached forward and grabbed Sagi. It hurt a lot, because the man didn't seem to notice all the scratches on her arms, and also because her mom would not let go at first, and it jolted her wrist.

Then the auntie stormed passed, and slapped Sagi's mom, and the room went super quiet.

Sagi felt angry, because she had always thought the lady next door was really gentle and pretty, even though she had a few grey hairs, but hitting people wasn't nice, and that. Was. Her. Mom.

Her mom who just collapsed to the floor and kept crying, whispering madly under her breath.

"No. No, no, no. No. Please not Sagi. Do not take her away to. Sagi. Sagi, come back. Give me back my daughter."

Sagi's throat hurt, and it felt pretty hard to breathe.

"Foolish woman," the man holding her snapped. "You have no right to call her daughter. Look at her. She's half dead. LOOK AT HER!"

Her mother flinched and cowered away, as if she could just dissolve into the floor and vanish.

"Ma, ma, not in front of the brat," the other man drawled from his spot near their broken door.

"Sayuri-san, look at what you've done," the mean Obasan whispered, and she wasn't just talking about Sagi. "You have to get yourself together. For your child. If you don't, we are going to have to take her away. I can't, in good sense, leave her with you when you're in this kind of state."

The loud man scoffed. "I say we take her away now. Do you see this? Her ribs are poking out. She's running a fever too. Plus… This house. This isn't fit for pigs, let alone a six year old."

Sagi remembered that she was almost seven. Somehow she didn't think she'd be getting any cake this year.

"You can't take her away. She mine. She can't leave me. Sagi, Sagi you want to stay right? You want to stay with mommy, don't you? You're my good little girl."

Sagi wondered who this stranger who called herself mother was, wondered why looking her made a nasty nauseous feeling appear in her belly. Sagi didn't think the sad little creature was her mom. Her mom was beautiful, and special. Her mother climbed mountains, and smiled at the stars, and dabbed butter on her daughter's nose, and laughed when she went crossed eyed trying to see it. Her mom tucked her in at night, and made special toast with faces on it, and did hand stands, and pretended to fall over and get hurt so that she could grab Sagi and tickle her until she cried for mercy.

"I-" Sagi, mumbled, and for the first time since everyone had barged in, they looked at her. Actually looked at her. "I want my mom."

And if they misunderstood, and left her with the scary stranger who had snatched away her mother's place, well, Sagi never said anything.

"Humph." The loud man looked like he was going to argue, but the lady from next door interrupted him.

"See, Sayuri-san? You still have her. You have to be better for her."

Sagi's mom bawled, and nodded, and reached for Sagi who just stood there, stiff and uncomfortable with the bony arms that wrapped around her in a tug that was too tight.

"Ah. All's well that ends well," the other man hummed, his voice low and even, as if he was completely unaffected by the emotional, and dramatic scene that had just happened. "Ah! Except for the door. I'll fix that."

The loud man sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. "Listen here. You aren't going to get another chance. We are going to check in on you every few days to make sure you aren't doing anything crazy, got it? So you better get your act together, 'cause if I see this kid in a state this bad again, we aren't just going to sit around, and watch."

Sagi's mom nodded again, frantically.

Sagi wondered if that meant she could have something to eat.

* * *

Sagi was ten when she beat one of the other neighbourhood kids to a pulp. She wasn't really sure why she did it, because even though he had called her mom a psycho it wasn't like Sagi cared. It had already been more than three years since her mom had gone off the deep end, and Sagi had known it for almost as long. Even when her mom was supposed to be better, even when she had been threatened with losing her daughter, she had never really gotten better. Only better at hiding it. Calling her a psycho was really just stating the truth, and beating someone up for it wasn't going to change anything. But Sagi hoped it would make her feel better.

* * *

 **A/N: So, something a little different than my usual Death Note fanatacism. Honestly, I'm just putting this out there, because I want to see how it goes over... I have great plans, but I cannot make any promises on dedication, because procrastination. Next chapter, if I do it, will drop us right in to the plot.**


End file.
